Michigan Democrat's endorsement of Republican ruffles critical Senate race

ANCHORAGE, Alaska/DETROIT - A prominent Michigan Democrat endorsed Republican Mike Rogers on Sunday, giving President Donald Trump's Republicans an unexpected boost in a critical US Senate race two days before midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.

US Representative Haley Stevens, who lost the Michigan Democrats' Senate primary to Abdul El-Sayed in a bitterly contested race, publicly backed Rogers and appeared with him at a Detroit church, threatening to worsen divisions in a state viewed as crucial to Democratic hopes of retaking the US Senate.

"I don't belong in Abdul's campaign," Stevens said in a video posted to social media.

Hours later at a political rally in Iowa, Trump invited Stevens to join the Republican Party. He told reporters beforehand that he would reach out to her to thank her for the endorsement, which he called "a smart thing to do because El-Sayed would destroy our country."

Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House of Representatives seats are on the ballot on Tuesday. Republicans hold narrow majorities in both chambers. Polls show Democrats are favored to win a majority of the House and are locked in a tight battle for control of the Senate, where the outcome likely will rest with a handful of states, including Michigan and Alaska.

If Democrats take control of the House or Senate, they could block Trump's legislative agenda for his final two years in office and launch investigations of an administration that has so far faced largely compliant Republican majorities. The White House has been preparing to implement portions of Trump's agenda without the aid of Congress, including its tariff pressure on trading partners.

Michigan rift

Stevens' endorsement of Rogers came on the day she was scheduled to appear with El-Sayed in a show of party unity. But the planned event unraveled after Stevens called on El-Sayed to condemn an outside group's ad that she said blames Israel for high grocery prices.

"That ad was very painful," Stevens told CNN on Sunday night. "There are so many Democrats who want to vote for our Democratic nominee, and they're just being told, 'Hey, this is a party you don't belong in, or this is a campaign you don't belong in.'"

El-Sayed's campaign recently asked Stevens to skip his events through Election Day so as "not to distract from the central issues of the campaign," a person familiar with the matter said.

Republicans sought to capitalize on Stevens' move. "This is courage in politics in America today," Rogers said. "When you see a party, and at least a sliver of the party, veering off into the virulent hate that they have been spewing toward a group of people, it gets dangerous."

Later on Sunday at the Iowa rally, Trump repeated false claims that El-Sayed is a "jihadist" - attacks that fit a broader pattern of inflammatory rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans targeting Arab Americans and Muslims.

Stevens' move did not appear to dent support for El-Sayed. A New York Times/Siena poll released and partly conducted on Sunday showed the Democratic nominee with a 53% to 42% lead over Rogers.

A spokesperson for El-Sayed's campaign said that it raised $1.2 million in the four hours after Stevens endorsed Rogers, making it the campaign's second-best fundraising day since the Democratic primary election in August.

He declined to directly address Stevens' endorsement on Sunday.

"This race was never about me," El-Sayed told MS NOW. "It was never even about Mike Rogers. It's certainly not about Haley Stevens. This race is about the people in the state of Michigan, the people that I've gotten to know in their churches and synagogues, in their basements and their living rooms, talking about what they need and deserve."

A number of Stevens' congressional staff resigned over the endorsement, according to reports from CNN and the Hill, while some voters expressed disdain.

"Haley Stevens is a traitor," said Pamela Johnson, 72, after casting her ballot for El-Sayed in Warren, a Detroit suburb.

Alaska intervention falters

Also on Sunday, the Trump administration's attempt to intervene in Alaska's Senate race faltered when a federal judge dismissed the US Justice Department's lawsuit seeking to block certification of the results if Republican incumbent Senator Dan S. Sullivan narrowly loses.

The Justice Department argued voters may be confused by the presence of a challenger named Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. on the same ballot.

The issue has roiled the campaign over the last several days after the New York Times reported that Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign was involved in recruiting Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. into the race as a spoiler.

The senator said on Sunday he would accept the results of Tuesday's election even as the Trump administration presses a criminal investigation into the issue. But Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, has suggested he may not certify a victory by Peltola, and the incumbent Sullivan declined to say whether he would support efforts to refuse certification.

He joined his party colleagues in accusing the other Sullivan of trying to confuse voters with his similar name.

"They got the decoy guy on the ballot," the senator told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "I'm sure I'm going to lose a lot of votes to that trickery. So what I say to Alaskans is, 'Don't let them get away with the tricks.'"

Peltola has denied involvement, and Sullivan Jr. has denied coordinating with Peltola's campaign. — Reuters